


There’s a home for you in Kakariko

by Ori_Oh



Series: Temperature [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Comfort, Depression, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21970942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ori_Oh/pseuds/Ori_Oh
Summary: Link comes back to Kakariko, this time with Zelda in tow, coming for official business.
Relationships: Link (Legend of Zelda) & Reader
Series: Temperature [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581607
Kudos: 26





	There’s a home for you in Kakariko

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes it takes a year to write a fic, and that's okay. Also I promise I didn't do big blanks two fics in a row on purpose.

“Anything else?” You call to Paya as you finish hanging up a sheet. It’s been a week since you’ve had that talk with Link, and he’s been staying around Kakariko since, hunting and picking off the occasional Bokoblin that strayed too close to the village. Zelda had wrote in two days ago, saying that she would be coming down today to visit, so Paya had asked for your help with preparing her room. 

“No, t-thanks for all the work today!” Paya calls back from inside the house. A calming breeze was blowing through the town, and you breathe out as your shoulders relax a little. 

“Hey, do you wanna get some fruit and eat it at the veranda?” You say, wanting to spend some more time with Paya. 

Paya grins, and runs back into the house, presumably to get some fruit. You gaze across Kakariko as you wait, subconsciously trying to spot a mop of messy blonde hair walking - or gliding - into town. Just worried about him, you reason to yourself. The town itself was also getting ready for Zelda’s arrival, cleaning up and making sure everything was in order. It was weird to see everyone out and about like this, though you realise that it’s because you don’t spend much time out in the first place.

Paya walks back in with a plate full of apple slices and sets them down on the floor, cutting your ruminations short. You smile and take one, enjoying the sunlight and cool afternoon breeze. Talking about nothing and everything at the same time, a small seed of guilt starts to creep into you. 

“Thanks for taking the time to be with me,” you say, “you could’ve been friends with anyone.” The silence lingers on for too long, tasting metallic in your mouth, then Paya looks you in the eyes. 

“Y-you know,” she starts, then takes a deep breath, “You’ve always been my friend, not just someone who’s, well, in good graces w-with the next in line.” 

“Thank you,” you whisper back, reminding yourself of Link. A pang of regret shoots through you, that you’re having this moment with a dear friend and you think about someone else, but Paya wraps you in an embrace before you can think about it any more than that. Paya pulls away, smiling at you, then a look of realisation dawns upon her face and she glances down.

“Sorry.”

There was nothing to be sorry about, and you crinkle your eyebrows a little thinking about it, but it seems like today doesn't want you to think for too long; because Paya shifts and begins waving to someone in the distance. 

Upon closer inspection, you see Link gliding down into the village, and Paya runs down the lengthy staircase at the front of the house, with you following close behind. After a brief moment of waiting for him to descend low enough to fall, you smother both of them in a hug, and you laugh awkwardly into Paya’s hair. As you break apart, it looks like Paya’s having an out-of-body experience, never being the extroverted type, and you feel a  _ little  _ bad, but what’s done is done.

“I’m dirty,” Link signs, looking undeservedly guilty about spreading the dirt onto both your clothes, though mostly yours.

“I-It’s okay, Link, we j-just got done with cleaning,” Paya manages to squeak out, though the way she incessantly swats at her dirt-stained clothes says otherwise. A conversation begins to flow naturally between the three of you, though Paya is mostly content with just listening in. Link talks about his day in short, stunted bursts, and you rattle on about anything your mind can grab onto, wanting to keep the conversation going. 

Eventually, the three of you are back from getting a change of clothes and a bath, and waiting for Zela’s arrival. After Calamity Ganon, Zelda wholeheartedly put herself into rebuilding Hyrule, though you don’t really know what’s going on with that, with her being a friend of a friend. From what you know, it seems that she’s here on official business with Impa, though Link says she just wants to meet her old caretaker and catch a break. The “royal entourage” eventually rides into town as the sun dips into the horizon, with only a handful of soldiers on horseback accompanying the now-queen, but you suppose that there aren’t many free hands, and Link would’ve cleared out most of the monsters around here anyway. Zelda and Link smile at each other, and you’re forced to remember that they’re some of the only people who remember the Calamity, and that they have more in common than you ever will to them. That’s probably why she came here, to be surrounded by people who understand her.

After many polite refusals and clumsy attempts at getting out of social interactions, you find yourself at home, unsettlingly alone for such a busy night. You sit by the fireplace with some rice balls that Paya generously gave you, and you decide against actually cooking anything and instead opt to have a heavy breakfast tomorrow morning. You sit in silence, stoking the freshly-lit fireplace, as the Kakariko night sets in. Nights alone always make you think, especially on a night like this, where everyone else isn’t. 

You somehow manage to get by hunting small game with your slingshot, which generally means a lot of time in the wilderness and away from people. The only people you interact with regularly are Trissa and Paya, though even then you’re pretty sure the relationship you have with Trissa is purely professional. Everyone else you know, but it feels more like you know them like you know a squirrel that lurks around you when you hunt, that feeling of knowing what they might be, instead of who they actually are. 

Realising that you’ve been listlessly chewing on the same bit of rice ball for a while now, you set the whole plate down and sigh. Hopefully, everyone else is having a better time than you are right now, with the celebrations and the night generally being a nice one. You take a once-over on your slingshot and try to upkeep what’s already in the best condition it can be, given that it’s years old at this point, and take progressively smaller bites out of your dinner. The rice feels wrong in your mouth, and it sends a pang of guilt through you, that you can’t even enjoy something that Paya took time to give to you.

Giving up, you collapse fully on the ground, and watch the ceiling dance with the crackling fire. Time slowly slips away from you, as the fire gradually dims and turns into static. You feel nothing, you feel like  n ot h -

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


You’re jolted back into consciousness as a knock sounds out from your door, and you have to stabilize your breathing as your heart threatens to break your ribs. The door inches open, and Link’s blonde hair catches the moonlight as he peeks in.

“Hi,” you croak out, sprawled on the floor in front of a dying fireplace. 

Not the most flattering position, you think idly. 

“Hey,” Link signs back, as you squint to parse the silhouette of his hand, “I wanted to check up on you?”

“I’m alright,” it feels like your voice is leaving your mouth, rather than you having said the words you did.

Link walks in after that, and the door shuts behind him. You want to tell him that you’re fine, really, and that he can go back to Impa’s house and rest or whatever, but you know that he plans to stick around, because that’s the kind of person he is. You feel a flash of warmth surge into the room as Link puts more logs into the dying embers at your feet. 

A hand pops into your view as Link signs “Wanna get up?” to you, and you nod as you push yourself off the ground. It feels like all the dust that settled on you is pushing you down, and Link has to pull you into a sitting position despite your best attempts to do it on your own. 

“Can I stay for a while?” Link signs at you without making eye contact, with hand motions like his fingers are rusting over. 

You jerk your head up and down once, immediately hoping that it didn’t look as awkward as it felt. Goddess, this sucks. Link sits slowly, and a tense silence blankets the room as the fire crackles on. 

You don’t really know what to say, and you think he doesn’t either. Anxiety sets in, and you push out something that passes for an excuse.

“I, it happens a lot, I’m used to it.” 

“It shouldn’t.” There was an explosiveness in his signing now, like he physically wanted to fight.

“You told me,” he puts his hands back on his lap for a moment, and gathers his breath, “you told me to take care of myself. You have to as well.”

You are taking care of yourself! You’re fine! Sure, sometimes you sleep on the floor because you don’t have the energy to get up, and sometimes you forget to eat, but you’re fine! 

Right?

“I’ll be okay,” you tell him that as much as you tell yourself. 

“But you’re not now,” Link gets back up, conjures a feather from somewhere, and tucks it behind your ear (though you barely register it at this point), “so it’s alright to ask for help.”

“There’s a place I like to go to when I want to think.”

“Can I bring you there?”

You smile a little, that he’s still trying in his own way to cheer you up, so you nod. A firm hand grasps yours and you feel like your floating, as everything fades to white.

When you regain your senses, you’re sitting on a hard stone floor, the wind rushing against your face. The air feels like it's opened up here, or maybe it’s just because you’ve been sitting in your house for who knows how long. As your vision fully focuses on your surroundings the mountains stare back at you, so you’re in Hebra? Maybe? You’ve never been far away from Kakariko.

Link’s foot tapping on the stone floor makes you look over, and he slams his foot down as you make eye contact. The sound reverberates a little, and you blink trying to think of what to say.

“It’s a nice place,” you offer instead, uselessly.

“Yeah,” Link signs back, “it is.”

“The first time I got here, I still didn’t remember who I was,” Link signs like he’s only focusing on getting the words out, his hands pulled tight into his chest, “but when I got up this tower, and I saw the view I thought, maybe that’s okay. Even if I forget everything, I can always make new memories later, because I’m here now.”

“When I finally remembered everything, I came back here again. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to be a new person. I still need to help people.”

“Sorry, this was supposed to be about you.”

The frozen breeze whistled across the mountains, filling in the space.

Eventually, you smile and shake your head, saying, “It’s alright.”

You’ve always had trouble telling people what you wanted. Because, well, it really isn't a big deal most of the time, everyone around you is really nice and they look out for you! It’s not fair to them if you ask for any more than that.

“I-,” Link starts, and puts down his hands again. He looks at you, the ghost of an expression pushing through his mask. 

“I’ll be waiting for what you have to say.” The words seem strange to you, because you don’t really know what to say. You want to say  _ something _ , convey an emotion that you’ve had for a long time, but it's like the words are damming up your throat and won’t leave your mouth.

“I think that, that I might need,” you wince, “need some help.”

“I know you need to go and help everyone else, and I think it's great that you want to, but I-, I don’t know,” the words keep coming out of your mouth, even though you have no clue what your saying. 

Then, Link walks up and wraps you in his arms. You feel just a little better, and you stop hearing the winds moving over the mountains. The moment of silence sits with you for awhile, and for the first time in awhile, you feel like you’re here. Not distracted, not flooded with thought, just,  _ here. _

When Links pulls out from the embrace to sign to you, its loose, his hand moving the way it does when you two sit by the fireplace, though the tension still remains. 

“I know how hard it is to tell people what you’re feeling. You don’t have to if you can’t, but promise me you’ll tell me if you can?”

You smile, and nod at him a little too hard, jerking your head down shakily. 

Both of you spend some time watching the mountains in silence before heading back, and when you do, the moon shines bright over Kakariko village. 

  
  



End file.
